Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie pay price for row over Duke of York's trade role

Controversy over the Duke of York's role as a trade envoy has affected the future roles of his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie have been affected by the controversy over the role of their father, the Duke of York, as a trade envoyPhoto: REX FEATURES

By Richard Eden

6:30AM BST 27 Mar 2011

While the Duke of York has managed to cling on to his post as Britain's special representative for international trade and investment, he may have lost his daughters their future roles.

Mandrake hears that the controversy surrounding Prince Andrew's job has put paid to his long-cherished ambition that Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie should join him as working members of "the Firm".

"It has been made clear that the Princesses should pursue their own careers and have no formal roles," a courtier claims. "The Prince of Wales is keen that the Royal family should be seen to have 'slimmed-down'."

Prince Andrew has spoken publicly of his desire for his daughters to continue his work. In 2008, he even took Beatrice, who is now 22, with him on a 14-day tour of Egypt and Abu Dhabi to provide her with some experience of her future role.

When the second son of the Queen was asked two years ago whether he wanted the Princesses to take on some of his duties when they left university, he replied: "If that is the sort of thing they want to do, I see no reason why not. I could make use of them because they would take some of the burden off me.''

Disquiet over the Duke's role has been growing since December, when he was photographed in New York visiting his long-standing friend Jeffrey Epstein, who was released from prison in 2009. Epstein served 13 months of an 18-month sentence for child sex offences after admitting that he had solicited an under-age girl for prostitution.

One teenage girl who claims to have been held as a "sex slave" by Jeffrey Epstein subsequently released a photograph of the Duke with his hand around her bare waist. Although Andrew enjoyed massages during his stays at Epstein's homes, there is no suggestion that he was aware that girls were being abused.

This month, Andrew's former wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, admitted that Epstein had helped her to avoid bankruptcy by paying off part of her £5 million debts.

Last year, Fergie was filmed by an undercover reporter offering to sell access to her ex-husband, with whom she still lives at Royal Lodge, Windsor, for £500,000.

Stephen Day, a former head of the Foreign Office's Middle East section, said the Duke should be sacked as trade envoy "as soon as possible" because he was doing "serious damage" to the Royal family and to Britain.

The former ambassador took the highly unusual step of writing to three Whitehall departments, making an impassioned plea for the Government to end the Duke's "embarrassing" activities.

Beatrice is due to graduate this summer from Goldsmiths, University of London, where she is studying for a degree in history. Eugenie, who celebrated her 21st birthday last week, is in the second year of her combined studies degree course at Newcastle University.